Krakow, early last century, internal medicine ward of St Lazarus hospital. A young doctor conducts a general examination of a patient. He asks about her ailments, their intensity, the circumstances of their appearance. In the course of a typical interview, he suddenly asks: "And the intimate life of the honourable lady, satisfactory?" The woman blushes and explodes with indignation.
When discussing Dr Kurkiewicz's journalistic activity, it is impossible to omit his vocabulary activity in the field of the phenomena described. He is the author of such terms as samieństwo (onanism), chudziny (that is stimulation of the partner's genitals with the hand), płećowanie (sexual intercourse), płeć cofałność (intermittent intercourse), małorozkosz (sexual frigidity), wnetszczytliwość and trudszczytliwość (as a term for "types of sexual dispositions"); he referred to his own speciality as a sex worker. In 1913, he published an entire dictionary devoted to the terms he had created. This terminology, although ridiculous today, was intended to introduce Polish-sounding terms into the field of medicine. Perhaps the doctor also assumed that native nomenclature would bring the subject matter closer to a wider audience. As one might guess, this nomenclature did not win him any supporters in medical circles.
Dr Kurkiewicz's activity for the development of sexology and sexological education was very important. He advocated the opening of an institution for the study of sexuality; he taught conscious motherhood to adolescents and adults, treating as a necessity what others considered a fad. Unwanted pregnancies and abortions were a major and inconvenient social problem at the time - women often had the procedure performed by unqualified midwives, which often ended in death. In Warsaw, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński (a doctor by profession) and the columnist, Irena Krzywicka, tried to combat this problem.
The postulates of Stanisław Teofil Kurkiewicz were finally put into practice - unfortunately not by him. In 1918, Magnus Hirschfeld opened the first Sexological Institute; the real breakthrough in this field was the research on sexuality carried out by Alfred Kinsey. Kurkiewicz died in 1921, but discussion of his work did not die down even then. Today, his colourful figure is the patron of the Foundation for the Promotion of Sexual Health, and his published handbook has inspired a theatre play. Pretty good, isn't it?
